The center of the blast site on Worthington Street that rocked Springfield's downtown on Nov. 23.Republican file photo

SPRINGFIELD – One month after a stunning natural gas explosion fractured downtown, Columbia Gas has paid out just over $1 million in cash advances and settlements, and signs of progress are appearing in the blast zone.

Widespread scaffolding, reams of yellow caution tape, scores of plywood-covered windows, and piles of rubble at the core of the disaster gave the area something of a dystopian feel just after dawn on Saturday morning. But, there is evidence of optimism.

Repair work continues on an apartment building at the corner Chestnut and Worthington Sts. one month after a gas explosion destoyed the Scores Gentlemen's Club on nearby and heavily damaged area structures.
Michael S. Gordon
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The Republian/ Michael S. Gordon

Above a city-issued “restricted use” sticker on the door of Tyre Trak, once a busy auto service shop at the corner of Worthington and Chestnut streets, employees have affixed their own sign.

“This is not the end … This is just the beginning! We'll be back” it informs a customer who arrives at the lot early to see whether the shop has re-opened. A small SUV with a brick puncturing its windshield still sits in the parking lot, but the site is notably clean and there are signs of rehabilitation within.

Directly across the street, the condemned Square One early education center remains boarded up with damaged cars still in its lot as well. About 100 young students have been placed in other spots across the city, according to Joan Kagan, president and chief executive of the family and child care network.

A spokeswoman for Columbia Gas of Massachusetts said it has processed 700 claims from business owners, tenants, residents, charitable organizations and ministries clustered in the blast site, which covered several square city blocks.

“We’ve issued cash advances and initial settlements ranging from $100 to thousands of dollars based on the specific needs in each case," totaling just over $1 million, said Columbia Gas spokeswoman Sheila Doiron. “Our commitment to the city remains unwavering.”

The explosion occurred Friday evening on Nov. 23 at Scores Gentleman’s Club, a strip bar at 453 Worthington St. State arson investigators later determined a Columbia employee responding to a report of a leak accidentally punctured a gas line that had been mismarked earlier. The employee evacuated the 20 or so workers inside and warned emergency personnel in the area, minutes before dissipating gas levels sparked a detonation that sent a fiery cloud into the night sky and shook communities as far away as Belchertown, according to reports.

That employee, plus civilians, fire and police officials, utility workers and a broadcast photojournalist, were injured. There were no fatalities.

“The magnificent part of that story, is once he realized he had penetrated the gas line, he ran into the building, not out,” Doiran said, preventing a far more tragic result.

The employee was injured but has returned to work, she said.

Dennis Leger, spokesman for the Fire Department, said three of 12 firefighters hurt in the blast after responding to the gas leak are still out of work, some nursing burns to the face and head they suffered during the explosion.

City Building Inspector Steven Desilets said 62 buildings around the blast site and 150 residential units were damaged. An apartment building at the corner of Worthington and Chestnut is still swathed in scaffolding as repairs are made to the exterior but most residents there have returned to their homes. An attached pawn shop, People’s Pawn, is still boarded up.

In addition to businesses and displaced tenants suffering from the effects of the disaster, charities in the vicinity have been hobbled and others are carrying added burdens.

The Springfield Rescue Mission at 148 Taylor St., where the homeless and needy were served since 1892, according to the sign on its exterior, remains closed after its windows were blown out.

Friends of the Homeless, a shelter and homeless resource center farther up Worthington Street, absorbed eight residents of the Rescue Mission. It also lost its overflow shelter at 501 Worthington St., just a few doors down from the blast site, and has taken to having some homeless people sleep in its dining room.

“We’ve set up about 20 cots. We’re hoping we won’t need any more. It’s a problem that will persist through the winter,” said William J. Miller, executive director of Friends of the Homeless.

Also at 501 Worthington St. was a daytime drop-in center for the homeless, with 18 efficiency apartments on the second through third floors that sustained heavy damage. Those are hastily being rehabilitated.

Though not as hastily as Miller would have hoped.

“The reality is that it could be a couple more months until we move people back in,” he said, adding that some have found new apartments throughout the Pioneer Valley and the city.

Miller said workers are still clearing the heating and cooling system of tiny glass fragments and making building fixes. The work to repair apartments floor-by-floor will follow.

Daniel D. Kelly, the attorney for Scores, its property owner and other downtown businesses hit by the gas explosion, said financial fallout continues for owners.

“Business is still down. This is their busiest season. It’s not like the month of December represents one-twelfth of their revenue. It’s tantamount to something like this happening around St. Patrick’s Day for an Irish bar,” Kelly said. “Everything’s back open and we’d like people to start coming back downtown.”

He said negotiations are ongoing between Columbia Gas and the business owners he represents.

Sherri Via, owner of the 350 Grill on Worthington Street, said business has been down about 30 percent since the explosion.

“It’s not like a normal holiday season. Customers are telling me they’re just tired of all the issues downtown,” said Via, one of only a very few high-end restaurateurs who’ve managed to survive in a flagging club quarter.

The explosion, on the back of the June 2011 tornado, has forced Square One to refocus their attentions on the rebuilding of a center leveled by the tornado at 959 Main St. in the city’s South End.

“The ink is still wet on our plans for the South End project. The explosion put that rebuild completely on the front burner,” said Kimberly Lee, vice president of development for Square One.

The precise location for the new South End center will be announced over the next couple of weeks, Lee said.

The twin disasters have brought the agency’s number of childcare centers from five to three. The explosion took 100 available spots for waiting toddlers off-line, she said.

However, Kagan said all 100 children had new spots to learn and be cared for at other sites within a week of the blast and 23 employees also had been placed in new jobs.

She said the agency is still evaluating its future and assessing the losses from the explosion.

Doiran said claims managers, adjusters and safety evaluators from corporate headquarters in Indiana flooded the Springfield area to help blast victims. Together with city officials, the two entities set up a center at Springfield City Hall for walk-in claims within three days and a hotline was established that still remains active.

Columbia Gas is still assessing the total damage with the city, Doiran said. Certain buildings, such as a condemned storage facility across from Scores on Worthington Street, will be unable to adequately assess damage until the owner and its storage tenants can report all losses.

The claims hotline is 800-451-4527; live operators will answer Monday through Friday 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., excluding holidays.